


Coming Home

by foobar137



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, F/M, Future Fic, Post-Canon, Returning Home, Reunions, Rude Awakening, Trope Bingo Round 2, Where is Home?, character death in backstory, post-college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-15
Updated: 2013-10-15
Packaged: 2017-12-29 11:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1004955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foobar137/pseuds/foobar137
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After graduating from college, Dipper has to make an important choice: where is his home now? Trope bingo: reunion</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> trope bingo: reunion
> 
> Time frame: ten years after the show. Dipper and Mabel are 22; Wendy is 25.

Dipper turned off the highway, smiling at the sign by the exit. “Only 8 Miles To The World-Famous Mystery Shack! SEE The World’s Most Distracting Object! Exit 73, Then Follow The Signs! Hey, kids! Scream until Dad agrees to stop!” Ever since Wendy had taken over running the Shack, the signs had spread throughout the northwest; she’d said she wanted it to be the Wall Drug of the West Coast. He’d been following them back home every summer since he could drive.

_Home._ It was such an odd word. His parents still thought his home was Piedmont, but Dipper knew that hadn’t been his home since he’d entered college, at least. He’d certainly spent more time in Gravity Falls; Christmases and Thanksgivings were spent in Piedmont, but summers were always helping out at the Shack with Wendy and Mabel. Grunkle Stan had been injured, deflecting Bill’s final attack on the twins their first summer in Gravity Falls, and had never really fully recovered. Wendy had taken on more and more responsibility as she’d gotten older and Stan had faded; by the time Dipper and Mabel were entering college, she was effectively running the place, and despite Stan’s complaints, she was doing a great job.

This would be Dipper’s first trip back here since Grunkle Stan’s death, though. He’d been in the middle of mid-terms when Wendy had called him with the news. The Shack had been left to Mabel, Dipper, and Wendy equally; they’d decided that, with Mabel and Dipper in their last semesters at college, they’d leave Wendy running it until graduation and figure things out from there. Mabel would be arriving tomorrow, since she had further to drive from Boulder than he did from Seattle. He knew she wouldn’t be staying, though - she had a job lined up in Los Angeles, working in children’s animation. She kept saying a show based on that summer would be awesome, but she had to do her time working on other people’s shows before she could have a chance at her own.

Dipper had nowhere else he had to go. Really, he had nowhere else he wanted to go. And if things worked out with Wendy...he’d have to wait and see. They’d agreed a few years ago that nothing could really happen between them when he was just temporarily there. But now that he was moving there permanently...he shook his head. She probably had another boyfriend. She’d seemed to have a different one every summer; Robbie, and Thompson, and several others he couldn’t even remember.

It wasn’t like Dipper could be jealous. He’d had girlfriends of his own, back in Piedmont and then at college. He’d even considered asking Hannah to marry him, before...well. No sense moping over that one; she’d made her decision, and he didn’t suppose he could blame her.

He turned onto Gopher Road, at the sign that said, “SEE The Six-Pack O’Lope! The World-Famous Mystery Shack! Left Then 1/2 mile!” and there was the Shack. He’d spent the last two summers working on it, carefully making sure it was solid while it looked ready to collapse in a stiff breeze. The parking lot was full, which he considered a good sign; he pulled around to the employee parking in the back and grabbed the last open spot.

He trotted around the building and walked in the front door. The bell rang, and Soos looked up. “Hey, Dip!” he said with a smile, ringing up a guest’s Sascrotch bobblehead.

“Hey, Soos! How’s business?”

“Doin’ okay. Busy as ever. Wendy’s just startin’ a tour if you wanna go catch up with her.”

Kyle, Wendy’s youngest brother, looked up from where he was organizing T-shirts and nodded at Dipper. All of Wendy’s brothers had rotated through the Shack for part-time jobs as they’d gotten older, then left to join their father as a lumberjack when they were of age; Kyle had one last summer here before he was done. Dipper had been terrified of them at first, but he’d been reassured that as long as he didn’t hurt Wendy, they wouldn’t hurt him. Still, he always figured they could smell fear, so he tried to remain calm.

He slipped into the Museum hall, where Wendy was talking up the jackalope display. She saw him and gave him a wink, then went on with her patter; he sidled up to the group and joined them. He always loved listening to her giving the spiels; she’d learned showmanship from Grunkle Stan, and then turned it into her own little art.

She sent the group off into the gift shop, and gave Dipper a smile. “Hey, shrimp,” she said. He was still a couple inches shorter than her, and so she’d given him the nickname as soon as they’d both realized he wasn’t growing any more.

“Hey, stretch,” he responded with a grin. “How’re we doing?”

“We’re rolling in it,” she said. “Ready to put that degree in business to use?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be. Where should I put my stuff?”

“I think you get Stan’s old room, unless you want to share the attic with Mabel again. Is she bringing her boyfriend?”

“Probably. I’ll give them some privacy, I think.” He took a deep breath. “Feels kind of weird not to have Stan here.”

She nodded. “It’s too quiet.”

“Mabel will fix that tomorrow.”

* * *

The Shack had been closed for the night, and they’d retired to the living room to drink beer and watch TV. They weren’t really paying attention to the show, though.

“So what’s up in your life?” Dipper asked.

Wendy, sitting a couple feet away on the couch, shrugged. “Nothing much. Artie decided he wanted out of Gravity Falls, so he broke up with me and moved to Eugene.”

“Ooh. The big city,” Dipper said sarcastically.

Wendy laughed, almost choking on her beer. “Yeah, he’s a city boy now. I couldn’t go with him. I’ve got Gravity Falls in my veins.” She looked around at the old living room. “It’s home.”

Dipper nodded agreement. “It is. I think I’m going to stay.”

Wendy looked at him, her eyes narrowing. “What’s...what’s her name, Hannah...think about that?”

He shrugged. “I neither know nor care. She dumped me the day after Grunkle Stan died. Said that she was never getting me away from ‘that flea-bitten town’ and that I could rot here for all she cared.” He took a pull on his beer.

Wendy snorted. “Her loss.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, this place just wouldn’t be the same without you here.” She finished off her beer, then said softly, “I’d miss you.”

Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was the ten-year-old crush coming back, but he felt warm as he looked over at her. “I’d miss you too. Probably more than anyone else here.”

She smiled at him, then stood up, shaking her empty bottle. “I’m gonna grab another. Want one while I’m up?”

“Sure,” he said, finishing his own and handing her the empty bottle.

She came back after a moment with two opened bottles, and handed him one. He raised his in a toast, saying, “To Gravity Falls,” and she clinked hers with his. As she sat back down on the couch, he noticed that she sat closer than she had before.

Slowly and deliberately, he put his arm around her. She smiled at him and relaxed into his shoulder.

“So, we said a while back that nothing could happen while I was only here temporarily,” he said quietly.

She _hmm_ ed agreement, her eyes closed.

“I’m here to stay now.”

Her eyes opened and she looked at him, her eyes sparkling, then leaned in to give him a kiss.

* * *

Mabel crashed through the door of Wendy’s room. “I’m here!” she said, flipping on the light. “We drove straight through the night because I missed...you...guys...?” She paused, seeing that there were two figures sleeping in the bed.

Wendy looked up and said, “Don’t you ever knock?”

From the doorway, Mabel’s boyfriend, Tom, said, “I told you not to just burst in.”

Mabel’s eyes went wide. “Dipper! What are you doing here?”

Dipper blinked against the light. “If you really need to know, I think that old book of Grunkle Stan’s is still around somewhere. But I’m not about to demonstrate in front of company, thanks.”

Mabel closed her eyes and backed out. “Okay, I did _not_ need that image.”


End file.
